Glass is an extraordinary substance born of sand, alkali and fire which has served our society for more than 3500 years. From luxury items, glass has evolved into our everyday functional uses in our twentieth century civilization. We don’t have to look further than our homes as we would probably find a vast variety of ways that glass serves our everyday needs like glass bottles, jars, etc…

Decorative Glass

Glass used decoratively can take many forms. It can be made opaque or transparent, clear or colored, brittle or soft, durable or fragile. It can be molded or blown, cut, engraved, enameled or painted. In the hands of an artist, it becomes a medium that permits an almost limitless variety of techniques in the quest for a finished object of great beauty.

In this post I would like to highlight only one decorative technique which is glass cutting. Cut glass is a glass that has been decorated entirely by hand by use of rotating wheels. Cuts are made in an otherwise completely smooth surface of the glass by artisans holding and moving the piece against various sized metal or stone wheels, to produce a predetermined pleasing pattern. Cutting may be combined with other decorative techniques, but “cut glass” usually refers to a glass object that has been decorated entirely by cutting.

History of Glass Cutting

Cut glass can be traced to 1,500 B.C in Egypt, where vessels of varying sizes were decorated by cuts made by what is believed to have been metal drills. Artifacts dating to the sixth century B.C. indicate that the Romans, Assyrians and Babylonians all had mastered the art of decoration by cutting. Ever so slowly glass cutting moved to Constantinople, thence to Venice, and by the end of the sixteenth century, to Prague. Apparently the art did not spread to the British Isles until the early part of the eighteenth century.

Our Cut Glasses

In 1989, when our company was formed our basic activity was glass cutting then we specialized in glass shade cutting and started to manufacture antique reproduction glass light shades. Now it is all history and we are very proud that today, we are one of the leading suppliers of antique reproduction glass shades.

Our glass lamp shade portfolio represents hundreds of different glass shades from tulip shades, to globe shades, opal shades, bankers shades and flambeau shades to name a few. Our glass shades can be found in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and colours in contemporary, antique and art deco styles.

We are kindly invite you to our workshop through our YouTube videos where we cut our glass shades.

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About Us

This is the official blog of www.deco-shades.com We are a family owned company specialized in manufacturing precious handcrafted lighting and glass light shades in classic, contemporary and Art Deco styles.